Introduction & Research Project Team & support

Summary of Findings • Introduction • Summary of Findings • Slideshow • Movie The film industry is vital to the economic, social and cultural life of Los Angeles. It is also a significant employer of the LA workforce. The bureau of labor estimates that more than half of all US motion picture/TV production employment is located in California of which at least 92% is in Los Angeles. By some estimates the film industry represents 9% of California’s economy. Hollywood is also an important tourist attractor, which is very significant given that tourism represents 20% of this state’s economy. In addition, there are direct expenditures by film crews for parking, rents for unoccupied or underutilized properties, fees paid to the LA police and LA fire department, and miscellaneous payments to residents and business owners for use of their properties. Downtown LA is a relatively small area, around 7 square miles, bounded by the LA River on the east and highways to the North, West and South. It includes a host of communities including: an artist district, Little Tokyo, the financial and cultural center Bunker Hill, the Civic Center (LA’s principal government complex), the old Bank District, Skid Row and industrial/manufacturing areas including the Toy, Fashion and Jewelry districts. The diversity of building types and cultural life in downtown make it ideal for filming. Downtown is in fact the only area in Los Angeles that has “a big city look”*, which allows it to stand in for other cities in the US and abroad (many of the TV shows and movies that are set in NY, Chicago and Philadelphia are actually filmed in downtown Los Angeles). After many false starts, it appears that downtown LA is developing into a vibrant, live-work neighborhood. The area boasts one of the hottest real-estate booms. Downtown is being transformed from an office and industrial center that would only sustain low-income and non-traditional housing into a housing, entertainment and mixed-use area. In some parts, like the Old Bank District, the change has been dramatic. It has been estimated that there will be around 6 billion dollars worth of construction in downtown between 2002 and 2006. Much of this revitalization has focused on adaptive reuse of abandoned commercial properties for housing, but there is also new construction. This has led to an increase in residential population of around 30% in the last five years. A residential population that is significantly wealthier than the existing population. Downtown News (the local newspaper) recently reported that the average income of new residents is more than $100,000 per year. There are also a significant number of new, high profile government and cultural buildings including Moneo’s Our Lady of the Angeles (the world’s third largest cathedral), Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, and Morphosis’ Caltrans building. The most recent and ambitious proposal is the Grand Avenue Project: $1.2 billion in outlays for a 16-acre park, office, retail, and housing. The increased construction and demographic shift (particularly in downtown’s Artist District, the Old Bank District and the Historic Core) are creating unique challenges for the film industry. An increased residential population has resulted in: louder and more frequent complaints by residents against film crews; increased difficulty closing down street on evenings and weekend; and decreased availability of surface parking for film industry base camps. At the same time filming activity (including requests for late night filming, after-hours pyrotechnics and street closures) have been on the rise. Given these trends, it is imperative that the film industry and the city commission a study to understand what is currently happening with filming downtown and what future developments will most impact the industry. * This fact was corroborated by Steve Dayan a business agent with Teamsters, Local 399 (Studio Drivers and Location Managers) when we interviewed him in February 2005. [ back to top ]